Lifeboat Foundation

Year 2020 😗😁

Utilizing a multi-step CRISPR-Cas9 screen, researchers from Yale University (CT, USA) have identified two genes within the complex axolotl genome that seem to play an important role in limb regeneration. The study, publi shed in eLife, has overcome the limitations imposed by the size and repetitious areas of the axolotls’ genome to identify the genes through a novel platform, combining CRISPR and fluorescent chimeras.

While some level of regeneration is present in most animals, axolotls possess one of the most extensive capabilities, regenerating a range of tissues, including major organs and limbs, and many believe that the animals may help unlock the ability to regenerate large wounds. The researchers from Yale University have tracked 25 genes that are believed to be involved in the process, identifying two genes as having a considerable role in partial regeneration of the axolotl limb.

Continue reading “Regeneration genes identified in axolotls” »

A new study focuses on the role of the hippocampus, a brain region important for memory, and its place cells which “replay” neuronal sequences.

The researchers built an artificial intelligence model to better understand these processes, discovering that sequences of experiences are prioritized during replay based on familiarity and rewards.

The AI agent was found to learn spatial information more effectively when replaying these prioritized sequences, offering valuable insight into the way our brains learn and process information.

Thanks to a recent breakthrough by researchers from Newcastle University and Northumbria University in the UK, that dream may not be so far-fetched.

China’s state security authorities raided multiple offices of international advisory firm Capvision, state media reported Monday, part of a broader crackdown on the consulting industry as Beijing tightens control over what it considers sensitive information related to national security.

Officers raided Capvision’s office in the eastern city of Suzhou, questioned its employees and searched office devices, a Jiangsu provincial television station reported Monday. The company was a so-called expert network, which connected its clients with people who provided specialist knowledge, largely in mainland China.

The report did not give an exact date of the raid, but said it was part of a coordinated, nationwide operation carried out simultaneously targeting the company’s branches in cities including Beijing, Shenzhen as well as Shanghai, where Capvision was founded in 2006.

Invertebrates like jellyfish are inspiring flexible ‘soft’ robot designs. They could be used in tight and delicate settings, such as in surgical tools.

Chemists have made an iridescent, plant-based film that gets cooler in sunlight.

The material, which comes in a range of shining colours, could one day coat buildings and cars, lowering the need for air conditioning.

The film exhibits a smart property: called passive daytime radiative cooling, or PDRC, it doesn’t absorb much light, and it radiates heat out at a wavelength that escapes the atmosphere and zooms straight into space.

Space Renaissance International has recently launched a world-wide campaign for adding an 18^th SDG to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. Our initiative suddenly resulted to be in tune with similar initiatives, undertaken by other space advocacy organizations, e.g. the National Space Society of USA, and many others. All of these promoter organizations are now working to a joined campaign. Two initial milestones will be the presentation, by the NSS, of the #Space18SDG to the COPUOS (the United Nations Committee for the Peaceful Use of Outer Space) the first week of June, and a panel organized by SRI at the UN General Assembly in New York, for the 18 of September.

Space for All, on Earth and Beyond, a civilian-led space development, with human communities living and working in outer space to expand and multiply benefits to all the peoples of Earth.

The above is the main concept supporting our proposal, trying to make it evident, in few words, that, though we praise and consider very important the huge contribution so far given by space technologies to the achievement of the Earthly 17 SDGs, we think that they will not be enough to overcome the global crisis of human development on our mother planet, should humanity remain closed and confined inside its limits.

New insights into how X-ray flashes are produced during lightning strikes have been made by research.

It’s no secret that electricity bills are on the rise. With the P3 P4400 you can cut your energy costs and find out what appliances are actually worth keeping plugged in by finding power-wasting appliances. Simply connect any appliance to the Kill A Watt EZ, it will then assess how efficient each appliance really is.